I am just curious why dont harness horsemen embrace the idea of kinder whips like the Tbreds at Del Mar?One of my friends last year purchased these for the training of her horses and she feel just like I do nothing piss her off more than to see her athletes come back with a cut on them or a welt from a whip. The new whips are very interesting make a loud pop with the different design of the popper and the material the whip is constructed of wont cut.

I have never seen or know of anyone that has used or seen one.Seriously if the manufacturer would advertise in the trades or send out some free samples they might catch on.Do they make harness driving kinder whips? 48 inches long

I wonder what real racing would be if no whips were allowed in T-breds or Standardreds!

IMHO,The old horses that have already learned to race would get along just fine.Taking a field of young inexperienced colts or fillies to the gate would be a real crash bang comedy of errors. Half the field would never get within 5 lengths of the starting gate. You don't need to be beating on them, but you need some type of encouragement to keep them focused.

You guys know I'm all about the natural horsemanship thing which everybody thinks is lovey dovey please be a nice horsey. No. I always have a whip handy. At first it's for my own protection. I've been charged at with bared teeth and striking hooves while doing groundwork. They get a good snap on the nose if they try that. If I don't need it, great, rather have and not need than need and not have. While they are learning to drive, the chirp is the first cue, then the whip is first tapped on the ground getting closer and more forceful. I usually don't have to actually hit the horse, but will if necessary. Once I get the desired response (in this case forward movement) the whip is immediately put back on my shoulder. When I'm sure they know what I want and maybe now they're testing me*, it's please, pretty please, (whack!) pretty please with "sugar". No playing around, I said "move" I mean move NOW! Doesn't take them long to learn it's in their best interest to respond at the first ask. So, carrying that over to the race.... if a horse has been properly trained to respond to the chirp, the whip shouldn't really be needed. Certainly not used to slash unmercifully when the horse is giving you all he has.

*I've never had a horse NOT try to test me at some point. Almost ALWAYS on the fourth day of training. I look forward to those days....